Mayor John Cranley is crafting a new plan to overhaul Cincinnati’s parking system and is trying to find the five votes on Cincinnati City Council to make it happen. The debate may hinge on whether it’s worth it for the city to have the latest parking meter technology.

Cranley and his chief of staff, Jay Kincaid, have discussed two options with council members, according to notes taken by a City Council staff member and a draft motion obtained by the Courier under a public records request.

“We’re still in the process of making sure we have a majority for any plan,” Cranley said Monday. “We’re not ready to announce anything yet.”

New terms would be negotiated with the firms. The port issue $32 million in revenue bonds for the upgrades, which would result in a return on investment of $4 million the first year and $5 million in subsequent years.

But Cranley backs a second option that would have the city’s Parking Services Department take charge of the upgrade of the city’s meters and garages. The Port Authority would issue $25 million in revenue bonds backed by parking revenues. The improvements would generate a return on investment to the city of $6.2 million per year, eventually growing to $7.4 million.

“My instinct – where I am, and I’m willing to work with council to find a supermajority that we need – is that we’re going to do it ourselves and that Xerox is not going to be part of the solution,” Cranley said.

Neither deal would include any upfront payment to the city. The original parking plan called for an $85 million payment.

Under the second plan, meter rates in neighborhoods outside of downtown and Over-the-Rhine would increase by 25 cents an hour to 75 cents per hour. Downtown rates would remain at $2. The city would hire 13 additional full-time parking enforcement officers as it increases enforcement.

During the mayoral campaign, Cranley criticized Dohoney and the port’s plan for being too dependent on enforcement.

Asked why his plan, which also plans to increase revenue to the city via more enforcement, is different, Cranley said the city’s parking revenue has decreased from $11 million per year when he was on council in the late 2000s to $7 million now.

“Clearly we’re not minding the store. We have to run the system. We can’t neglect it. I think the port’s analysis shows that for the last four or five years that we have been neglecting the system,” he said. “There’s a number of differences. The most important thing is that these public assets remain in the hands of the public so that if we are too aggressive, start deterring business from the city, people can vote us out of office and change course. People can complain, and we respond.”

The staffer’s notes indicated that the meter upgrades contemplated would include the ability to take credit cards but that mobile phone app capability wasn’t a current part of the plan. Some council members have pushed for the mobile phone app, believing the city should have the best available technology.

The original parking lease plan called for meters that:

Allowed payment by phone

Provided information about rates and hours, events and closures to motorists

Allowed motorists to find available parking meters

Prevented customers from feeding the meters when they are not operational

Sent text messages to alert motorists their meters are about to expire.

Meter upgrades would cost $2 million under a city-run plan. Xerox’s contract under the original parking lease plan called for $4.7 million in meter upgrades that included the smartphone app.

Cranley said the new meters will have smarthpone capabilities, but the city needs to decide whether to pay to activate and maintain them. He is not sure the cost is worth the benefit and says other cities have backed off.

“They will have the technology in place,” Cranley said. “The meters themselves are wired to provide that information to smartphones. The question is whether we as a city want to invest in the money to allow the smartphone applications.

“Since we’re retaining these assets, that’s an ongoing policy discussion that doesn’t need to be answered definitively or finally with whatever we do to resolve the parking deal.”

In addition to the meters, the bonds also would finance construction of a parking garage at Seventh Street and Broadway and needed capital improvements to the city’s other garages.

Cranley’s plan also would offer the port an ongoing revenue stream to use for economic development within the city. The port would gain control of the city’s garage beneath the Westin Hotel, known as Fountain Square South. The port believes it could receive about $500,000 a year from the garage, Cranley said.

Leaders on the port’s board and its administration have been looking for such a stream to ramp up work on rehabilitation of sites in Bond Hill and Queensgate.